OF A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 
245 
faint and less frequent than those from the westward. In this respect, 1820. 
• therefore, we considered ourselves unfortunate, as experience had already 
shewn us, that none but a westerly wind ever produced upon this coast, 
or, indeed, on the southern coast of any of the North Georgian Islands, the 
desired effect of clearing the shores of ice. 
At nine P.M., Lieutenant Beechey could discover from the top of the hill 
no clear water in any direction. After ten o’clock the wind blew much 
harder, which obliged us to strike the top-gallant yards, and to brace the 
yards to the wind ; the ice had by this time ceased moving to the westward, 
having apparently, as before, reached its ne plus ultra in that direction. The 
electrometer was tried in the course of the evening, in the usual manner, the 
sky being full of hard dense clouds, and the wind blowing strong; but no 
sensible effect was produced upon the gold leaf. 
The gale continued strong during the night, and the ice quite stationary. Sat. 12. 
Not a pool of clear water could be seen in any direction, except just under 
the lee of our point, where there was a space 'large enough to contain half a 
dozen sail of ships, till about noon, when the whole closed in upon us without 
any apparent cause, except that the wind blew in irregular puffs about that 
time, and at one P.M. it was alongside. The ship was placed in the most 
advantageous manner for taking the beach, or rather the shelf of submarine 
ice, and the rudder again unshipped and hung across the stem. The ice 
which came in contact with the ship’s side consisted of very heavy loose 
pieces, drawing twelve or fourteen feet water, which, however, we considered 
as good “ fenders,” comparatively with the enormous fields which covered 
the sea just without them. So much, indeed, do we judge at all times by 
comparison, that this kind of ice, which in Davis’ Strait we should not like 
to have had so near us, was now considered of infinite service, when inter- 
posed between the ship and the heavier floes. Every thing remained quiet 
for the rest of the day, without producing any pressure of consequence ; the 
wind came round to N.b.E. at night, but without moving the ice off the land. 
Early in the morning of the 13th, I received, by Mr. Griffiths, a message Sun. 1 : 3 . 
from Lieutenant Liddon, acquainting me that at eleven o’clock on the pre- 
ceding night the ice had been setting slowly to the westward, and had at 
the same time closed in upon the land where the Griper was lying, by which 
means she was forced against the submarine ice, and her stern lifted two feet 
out of the water. This pressure, Lieutenant Liddon remarked, had given 
her a twist which made her crack a good deal, but apparently without suf- 
